Even though I have been woodworking for several years...I'm still not so good at understanding the best stain to use for certain projects.So here comes my question; I am building my own new home. I was able to cut and mill thousands of board feet of white oak. Thus I had a good lot of it made into flooring. I'm finally at the stage of preparing to install 3000 sq ft of this gorgeous oak. However I don't want to leave it natural colored. I want to stain it before the clear coats. If any one can provide advice or recommendations on the best stain such as brand; oil base or not' gel stain or not' and before I stain should I apply a thin coat of sanding sealer to help the stain stay uniform; And lastly will this flooring need a filler and if so what step in the process should that come? So many questions...thanks so much for your help. Jim

Sanding sealer not for stain control that is to make the finish smother as it is reletive soft and will fill the grain. Maybe a pre-stain but probably not necessary on white oak.My only suggestion for staining wool is wipe the stain on until the desired tone is achieved then wipe off immediately, then come back a second time to wipe off. I crawled around on a large floor doing this and it looks great.Applying then setting will not give as even a tone and has a tendency to blotch.Most oil stains work well, although, I have just started using gel stains seam to work well even on hard to stain woods.I have been using Sherwin Williams for 40+ years probably because that is what my dad used.As for filling only bad spots most of the fillers tend to crack on floors as they move quite a bit.My HF air flooring stapler has installed a lot of flooring (more than me) and has not missed a beat.I must confess I have only installed a few floors.

_________________"It is not a mistake it is a learning experience"
Monte

It's been a while since I did a floor, and I don't think I stained it...

But, for the filler/sealer, there is a resin that you can buy... You'll save your fine sawdust from the final grit, and then mix it with the resin... then you put it on with a trowel, just like grouting tiles... *IMPORTANT NOTE* -wear a headband for that part because the sweat that drips off your forehead will leave white spots.. {Yeah, I learned that one the hard way, and a couple of those spots didn't sand out}.

After that, the final sanding was done with a sanding screen on a rotary buffer, like the kind they use for buffing office floors.. It came out beautiful...

With Oak, you have to "grout" the entire surface, and fill all the pores. Unless you don't mind all the pores showing... But I don't think that's a good feature on a floor. Floors should be smooth and hard.

I agree with Daddy Gloves about Sherwin Williams, I would just go down there and ask them in person... They make good stuff, and they can give you all the details about it too... It's not like going to Home Depot and asking "the guy in the paint isle", if you know what I mean. I like my local Sherwin Williams store, especially for color matching oil base stain. They're really good at it.

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